Cast your mind back 30 years ago when SUVs like the Mitsubishi Pajero, Nissan Terrano, Perodua Kembara, and Isuzu Trooper were everywhere, they had one thing in common – a very recognizable rear-mounted spare tyre. Even the first two generations of the Honda CR-V offered a rear-mounted spare tyre, which was discontinued upon the release of the third-generation model.
Fast forward to modern-day SUVs and you would notice that the rear-mounted spare wheel, a feature that once defined an SUV, is becoming far less popular. What happened to the rear-mounted spare tyre that was once everywhere?
One possible reason why the rear-mounted spare tyre had to be relocated is because SUV tyres have increased in size tremendously over the past couple of years. Even a Proton X70 can be had with massive 19-inch alloy wheels, which can get rather heavy.
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Mounted such a heavy spare tyre on the rear of an SUV can have adverse effected on the SUV’s handling, as effects of inertia can be amplified when driving through a turn or changing lanes.
At the same time, a large-sized rear-mounted spare tyre is too heavy to be removed and fitted to a tailgate. Depending on SUV, their spare tyre is mounted underneath the vehicle (Toyota Fortuner), or underneath the boot floor (most unibody SUVs like the Honda CR-V, Proton X70).
Moreover, customers these days prefer an upward-opening tailgate as opposed to a side-opening tailgate. A side-opening tailgate that either opens to the left or right side is difficult, as on the left side, they are blocked by the door; if they enter from right, the spare wheel is blocking . Either way, the owner still needs to drive SUV out to open the tailgate fully.
With all said and done, it’s not necessarily the end of rear-mounted spare tyres. Even in 2023, you can still find a handful of modern-day SUVs with a rear-mounted spare tyre, including the Jeep Wrangler, Ford Bronco, Land Rover Defender, and Suzuki Jimny.
For the last few models, they are iconic models with a long heritge and the rear-mounted spare wheel is part of their design identity. On-road driving performance for these SUVs is secondary to keeping the iconic look.
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Source: Rear-mounted spare tyres were once common on SUVs, what happened to them?
